Pairing Paws Vol. 2 Is Purr-fect For Cat & Wine Lovers

by Melissa Jacobs

What’s more particular than a wine lover? A cat. So it makes perfect sense that Michele Gargiulo pairs wine varietals with cat breeds in her new book, Pairing Paws Vol. 2. A follow-up to her best-selling 2022 book which pairs wines with dog breeds, this Pairing Paws is filled with gorgeous feline photos and Gargiulo’s expert information on wine.

For example, Gargiulo pairs a Maine coon cat with Two Hands Wine’s My Hands Barossa Valley Shiraz from Australia. “A giant cat deserves a monster of a wine,” Gargiulo writes.

Why did the second volume take three years to publish? “Cats were harder for me than dogs,” Gargiulo says. Photographing cats wasn’t easy. “A lot of them were extremely shy and wanted nothing to do with being dragged out of their house and brought to studios,” she says.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Gargiulo is currently a sommelier at The Four Seasons Philadelphia and was the wine and beverage manager for all of Fearless Restaurants’ locations, including Autograph Brasserie, Rosalie, Louie Louie and the White Dog Cafes. A prolific writer, Gargiulo is the author of seven books and regularly writes about wine and spirits for a variety of publications, including Main Line Tonight, for which she is the food and wine editor.

If that resume sounds as impressively intimidating as wine lists in fancy schmancy restaurants, well, Gargiulo wants people to appreciate all kinds of wines. She wants people to explore different varietals and think outside the box …or the bottle. “There are $120 bottles of wines that are wonderful,” she says. “But there are affordable bottles that are really great choices.”

Gargiulo’s wine-and-pet pairing concept dates to 2020 when she was spending the COVID quarantine at home with her dog Reisling, who graces the cover of the first book. “She knows she’s famous,” Gargiulo jokes. “But at the time, I was drinking wine and sitting on the couch, and told Reisling what kind of style of Reisling she was that day based on her personality. Some days she was sassy and other days she was sweeter.”

Gargiulo turned that spark of an idea into the best-selling first book. Despite the difficulties of photographing cats for the second book, she is thrilled with the end result. “I love cats and dogs – and wine,” she says. “I hope people enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed creating it.”

To purchase copies of Michele Gargiulo’s books, visit her website.

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